Initially, Mao struggled to garner forces for an uprising, but Li Zhen rallied the peasantry and members of her local communist troop to join.[1] Mao then led a small peasant army against the Kuomintang and the landlords of Hunan. The uprising was defeated by Kuomintang forces and Mao was forced to retreat to the Jinggang Mountains on the border between Hunan and Jiangxi provinces, where emerged an army of miners. This was the first armed uprising by the Communists, and it marked a significant change in their strategy. Mao and Red Army founder Zhu De went on to develop a rural-based strategy that centered on guerrilla tactics, paving the way to the Long March of 1934 (the first Long March in 1918 not accountable).

The "Autumn Harvest Uprising Song" (秋收起义歌), sometimes simply referred to as "Autumn Harvest" (秋收), tells the history of the uprising in a different manner than what actually happened--one line reads, "The Autumn Harvest Uprising has succeeded!" (秋收起义成了功), which is quite far from the truth.[2]